Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Wants More Coverage Under Medicare

From Yahoo Health network contributor Lana Bandhoim.

"The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics announced on Monday that it is urging the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to make changes. The Academy believes that medical nutrition therapy must be expanded to include more conditions. The organization is once again highlighting an ongoing problem with Medicare's focus on acute illness and the inability to properly manage chronic conditions.

The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics wants to include medical nutrition therapy for more chronic conditions. Currently, only renal disease and diabetes are covered. The organization is asking the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to cover cardiovascular disease, hypertension and other chronic conditions. The Academy believes that this type of therapy can actually reduce medical costs because it serves as preventive treatment.

This is not the first time that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have been encouraged to make changes and handle chronic conditions better. A study from 2006 already illustrated how Medicare's focus on acute illness and neglect of chronic conditions could be dangerous. As the population of the United States continues to age, chronic disease is becoming more prevalent. The CDC reports that 7 out 10 deaths in the United States are caused by chronic disease. It is an epidemic that will get only get worse.

The CDC recognizes poor nutrition as one of the main causes of chronic disease in the country. However, Medicare continues to limit the types of conditions that quality for medical nutrition therapy, and no changes to this policy have been planned. Although the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics plans to pursue this issue, it is difficult to assess the possible success of creating a policy change. The American College of Physicians presented a paper in 2006 that clearly highlighted the growing need to handle chronic conditions, yet the issue has been ignored for years.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has the opportunity to enact real change and drastically improve the health conditions of an aging population. By expanding the number of conditions that quality for medical nutrition therapy, health costs can actually be cut because preventative treatments can save money."

I see a battle looming on the horizon--The Academy wants to throw a cog into the money-making works of medicine and created sickness by suggesting nutritive therapy. This is a good thing, and if it succeeds, then the cracks in government food policy/medical behavior/social eating behavior will widen, and continue to widen until you can drive trucks through them. I look forward to this day when we finally FINALLY shake off the old much-mistaken hypotheses of old, in favor of the new (with verifiable evidence to back it up).

Medicare has been a money-maker for so many companies (through sickness extension), as well as career-enhancers for so many politicians, and now it appears all that may come to an end...I hope. Once Medicare is conquered, maybe the rest of us will also get this access. Maybe one day we'll all have to see a nutritionist before we see an actual doctor--you think?